Published anonymously, and not attributed to Defoe till 1775, Roxana was nonetheless a popular hit in the eighteenth century, frequently reprinted in altered versions to suit the taste of the day: thus the 1775 edition, which called itself The New Roxana, had been sentimentalised to meet the tastes of the day.[6] Only gradually from the 19th century onwards did the novel begin to be treated as serious literature: the Canadian writer Ethel Wilson has been one of the 20th-century authors subsequently influenced by its matter-of-factness and freedom from cant.[7]
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